Hotel Principe di Savoia

The Hotel Principe di Savoia opened in 1927, named after the House of Savoy, Italy’s royal family, at a time when Milan was racing to cement itself as the country’s modern capital. The Art Deco interiors were all geometric flourish and polished marble, designed to impress exactly the kind of guests who would later occupy its Presidential Suite: Queen Elizabeth II, George H.W. Bush, and a rotating cast of world leaders who needed somewhere discreet to sleep between diplomatic dinners. The hotel sits in Piazza della Repubblica, a short walk from Milan’s central station, which made it convenient for arrivals by train in an era when that still mattered for dignitaries. During World War II, it served as a German military headquarters. Afterward, it reopened as a luxury hotel again, buffed the brass, and went back to hosting royalty. Nearly a century later, the same suite still books presidents, the same lobby still gleams.